It doesn’t immediately stand out as an impressive machine, but a premium motherboard provides the Eclipse Cosmos i726n57 with several unique features and bags of overclocking potential.

The Eclipse Cosmos i726n57 delivered the slowest performance in our WorldBench 6 test with 166 points, but increasing the RAM to 16GB and adding an SSD for SRT would give it a significant speed boost. Both upgrades are easy to perform, if your budget allows for them. Such tweaks depend on a compatible motherboard, however, so the same can’t be said for every PC on test.

The Asus board supplied with the Eclipse Cosmos i726n57 also offers improved overclocking capabilities, built-in Bluetooth (with support for apps you can run on a smartphone) and SLI.

Graphics performance from the Eclipse Cosmos i726n57’s nVidia GeForce GTX 570 is similar to that of the ATI Radeon HD 6970 – which is faster will largely depend on the games you play.

The Eclipse Cosmos i726n57 is housed in a tough-looking NZXT Beta system case, which includes top-mounted USB, audio and eSATA jacks for easy access, plus tool-free drive bays and plenty of fan-mounting points.

The 23.6in HKC 2249A is a reasonable full-HD display that offers digital and analogue inputs and built-in speakers. External speakers aren’t supplied, however, leaving the Eclipse Cosmos i726n57 flagging in the audio department. The screen itself is also bettered elsewhere.